About Us

Taste the difference over 100 years of experience can make

Baked beans are an American tradition, dating back to the early 1800s. Back then, New Englanders prepared beans in large pots of sauce that cooked for hours in large brick ovens. Slow baking made the beans tender and brought out deep flavors other cooking methods just don’t deliver.

B&M Beans are sweetened with molasses and cane sugar. They’re an excellent source of protein and fiber. Most B&M varieties are 99% fat free.

B&M HISTORY

In 1867, George Burnham, started his own food canning business. He was soon joined by Charles Morrill, and Burnham & Morrill was born.

In 1913, B&M moved from its original location at 13 Franklin Street, Portland Maine to its present site on Casco Bay, also in Portland. The B&M facility is seen by thousands of motorists daily. The B&M facility is a New England landmark. In 1965 the City of Portland recognized this and B&M’s address was designated “One Bean Pot Circle.” Since the company’s beginnings in 1867, the excellence of B&M products has been recognized both nationally and internationally, a fact attested to by the numerous medals and awards received over the years from U.S. and world trade expositions.

Timeline –

March 1, 1867: Burnham & Morrill Company is founded by George Burnham and Charles S. Morrill. Burnham brought meat and fish packing experience from his days with Rumery and Burnham, a company he helped establish earlier. Morrill had been one of Burnham’s foremen at Rumery and Burnham. Their first plant opened on Franklin Street in Portland, Maine (another source says that this is where the store and offices were established and that the first plant was, in fact, established at Bucks Harbor, near Machiasport, Maine). B&M’s First products included canned meats, vegetables and fish. Their offerings included canned roast beef, mutton, pork, lamb, roast chicken, roast turkey, carrots, turnips, corn and other vegetables, plus herring, clams, and lobsters.

1860s To meet growing demand B&M became a distributor of other company’s foods in addition to packing and selling their own. B&M marketed their own canned corn plus canned clams and tomatoes from the Underwood Company, canned oysters, peas and peaches sourced from Dunbar of Philadelphia and Louis McMurray of Baltimore.

1869-1873: Additional packing facilities (primarily for clams and lobsters) were established in the Northeast.

August 1893: George Burnham, Jr. received a patent on his corn-cooking machine. His invention is widely discussed at trade association meetings and is advertised in trade periodicals.

1913: B&M built a state-of-the-art four-story cannery in Portland Maine.

1920s: B&M began experimenting with Brick Oven Baked Beans in an attempt to offset declines in other product lines.

1920s and 1930s: After years of development, B&M began selling Brick Oven Baked Beans, packed in cans.

1960s: Growing national demand for B&M Brick Oven Baked Beans prompted a search for a West Coast operation to increase production and reduce transportation costs between Maine and the West Coast. The Santa Clara Packing Company installed 32 brick ovens and began producing B&M beans in a San Jose, CA facility in 1962.

1970s and 1980s: PET Foods of St Louis Missouri own the B&M business

1990s: Pillsbury purchased B&M from PET

March 1999: B&G Foods, Inc. purchased B&M from the Pillsbury Company. Today, B&M still bakes its beans in the traditional manner, in open pots inside brick ovens–a process that gives the beans a firmness and authentic taste far superior to modern, cooked in the can, “baked” beans.

About B&G Foods

Based in Parsippany, New Jersey, B&G Foods, Inc. (NYSE: BGS) and our subsidiaries manufacture, sell and distribute high-quality, branded shelf-stable and frozen foods across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. With our diverse portfolio of more than 50 brands you know and love, including B&G, B&M, Cream of Wheat, Green Giant, Las Palmas, Le Sueur, Mama Mary’s, Maple Grove Farms, Mrs. Dash, New York Style, Ortega, Pirate’s Booty, Polaner and Victoria, there’s a little something for everyone. For more information about B&G Foods and our brands, please visit www.bgfoods.com.